City in Sound; Time and Life

This is Jack Angel, with city and sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things, among them time and life. Lakeside Press on 22nd Street is big as a block. So big that even a new $4 million press can find itself in line, much like a replacement in an infantry platoon. 99 % of the total product is Life magazine, while down the block the vast plant of R .R. Donnelly prints time. Together, time and life comprise a printing and production operation without precedent and journalism. Beyond that, they are a major factor in the city's printing industry and a story of such unusual interest as might attract the sharp coverage of the magazines themselves. Though Chicago is the starting and stopping point for

printing and production, the starting point for editorial work is New York. But with many a stop at Midwest headquarters here in Chicago, and many a story from its staff conferences such as this one, presided over by Jack Olson of Time. It is here today, Robert Boyle, Bob Boyle. Bert Myers is not here because he's in Pioia working on a story. Mark Pearlberg is here, Harrison Red Lillie from Dallas, Texas. Ed Rhine Gold is here. John Rhinehart is not here because he worked until about five in the morning and Jack Olson is here. Robert Boyle, what are you working on this week, old boy? Well, I sent a suggestion into time and sports illustrated and they picked it up on the Cubs. It seemed to be off to a fast start. On the Cubs as a team or on any

team? On the Cubs as a team and pretty much. Yeah, any individuals? Lee Wals. Lee Wals because of all his home runs. Because of that, because of his general hitting. How many home runs did he hit last year? He hit six last year. The whole season? The whole season. And he hit 231, I think. Well, he's hit top that. Already? Already top that. Of course, a couple of them were over that funny screen on Los Angeles. Well, but still, there's enough difference to make a story. At this stage, I think so. Yes, they can always kill it. There comes with the primary emphasis on Wals, right? With the primary emphasis on Wals and sort of a secondary emphasis on so -called cast -offs that they picked up from other teams. And this is for sports illustrator and Timesport? And Timesport, both of them. What else, Bob? That's about it for now, Jack. I'll be free

for queries later in the week. You're not doing much, are you? Absolutely a lot. Hard week at the ballpark. Okay. For all what are you doing this week? Well, I've got that fortune assignment on selling to do. And that, well, I did most of it. That tied me up yesterday. And let's see. Well, you mean on the new salesmanship? The hard sell? The hard sell. You know. That's right. You auto buy. Yes. Which Myers calls anti -Somantic. And then we got to do something on the strike. The shipping strike. I was working on that last week. So I guess we ought to update that thing, both for the Canadian edition and for the domestic. It's a shipping strike for Canada and MSFU. Yeah. The interesting thing about that as usual, the union people are calling it, or at least one guy

told me last week that it was a lockout and so on and so forth. What does it look like to you? As yet, I really don't know, Jack. I just have to do a lot more digging. And something should break this week. Maybe there'll be a temporary injunction or something like that. Yeah. Is Daniel Kattenrich a time story? Yeah, that's a mandatory story. He's one of the... Amanda's story. Amanda's story. He's really one of the great museum directors in the country. And he goes to Worcester. But I hear that he's a little gem of a museum, you know. And he's getting lots of vacation time. He'll be free to write and study and so on. And maybe we can get him to sound off on a few things now that he's leaving Chicago, you know, the city. And that's about it. At least for now, we ought to have some late starters later on. Yeah.

One story that time and life might very well cover on themselves is the process by which the magazine is edited in New York and yet produced and printed out here. And nobody would know better about that than Mr. John Fitzgerald, who's the editorial production manager. Mr. Fitzgerald, this is your life. Exantime too, by the way. Exactly. How do you do this? We depend entirely upon wire communication for at least 95 % of the material that we process. And this is strictly a production operation, all creative control, as you know, is in New York. And we've, the basis is the each page of time, of life sports illustrated and fortune that is passed upon by the art director and the editor or sub -editors in New York. We receive a layout showing all the elements

in that page engraving -wise, typewise. Well, first of all, the copy comes into New York from all over the country and they edit the magazine there and then by teletype here, and one of these batteries over in the corner, you get the copy into this office and then what happens. The copy is turned over to either the engraving department of Donnelly's or the composing room. Following a precisely detailed New York layout, they make the engravings, set up the page of type, and submit proofs to us for correction or approval. Okay, as we call it. Well, this is such a tremendous Chicago industry really producing the time and life magazines. I wonder if anybody has ever asked you why, since they edit the magazine in New York, that they don't print it there? Well,

the, I think again, it's a matter of a company like always taking advantage of the best opportunity. New York is admittedly, I think, the creative center of the country, everything flows in the way of information flows into it, whereas Chicago, because it's being a railroad center, an air center, geographical location, is one of the primary, properly distribution points. We fan out from Chicago. Well, it just occurs to me looking around here in this production office that you folks really put together to the equivalent of several books a week here. I mean, really full -length novels or major printing productions. I wish I had some estimate on total words, but it's very, very large. I like this word to do not suffice, I suppose. We, in all, we produce

five editions of time for this country and worldwide editions. Canadian edition. Oh, you put out the international editions here, too. Yes, we put out the international edition in English of life and an edition of life in Spanish for Latin America. And, well, it has worldwide distribution. Fred Love is production manager of these publications. He's here in Chicago with a tremendous job. And part of it is that these magazines on the street. How many magazines do you do here, sir? Well, what are we doing in Chicago? We print the color for six and a half million. We print the body pages for over four million. That's on life. On time, we print in Chicago. The color pages, something over two million. And for the body pages, over a million. That's a pretty fantastic body. I understand that you have other printing operations in the country. This, I didn't know.

Where are these? Well, life is printed. Of course, the main printer is Chicago. Donnelly has something like 14 presses, which are used every week on life. We have two in the Clement Company in Buffalo. Two additional presses of the American color type in Chicago. Two on the West Coast. Three at CUNY -Eastern Press. And time actually has the main body of time is printed in four spots, Chicago, the West Coast, Philadelphia, and Washington. How do you get the copy around of those places to compose and set? Well, they're all composed here. And press plates are made and shipped to the other three spots. How about the last -minute problems when you have to change plates or change covers? Is that? That's not much of a problem, Jack, because it is routine in our magazines that it's a pretty rare week, that we don't get a last -minute change either in the cover, the inserts, or in the body of the magazine.

It's already geared for it. Yeah, we are somewhat surprised and we don't have a last -minute change. The printers should get the real big share of the credit for the speed, which life is printed. Because they make an immense contribution, and in many respects that they work hand and love with us and they appreciate that our magazines have a great new value, and they do a... Dickens have a good job to put it off that. I know you're not in the payroll department, but do you have any idea how many men do this job? Well, there's over 5 ,000 printing plants that are directly associated with our magazine, putting it out, work on nothing with our magazines, over 5 ,000. And of course, there are many more who work on it to some extent during the week, but over 5 ,000, steadily. By this stand, William, and a life -sized photographer here who's about ready to go to the Arctic. Can you say, Stan? Yes, I'm getting all packed. And

I have in my hand here a citation of first prize from Encyclopedia Britannica photo company, a contest here. We might as well congratulate you on that while we're here. What was that for, by the way? Oh, thank you very much, Jack. I got that award when I was down in Florida before I came up to Chicago. I photographed Game Warden, was chasing deer out in the Everglades, tackles the deer from the airboat. Must be quite a transition from Florida to the Arctic within a matter of a few days or weeks or maybe even hours for all I know. I think it's a plot to keep me in cold weather all summer long. What are you going to take up there? I went up on a walrus hunt. That's about all I know. I'm doing an anchorage two days from now. And from there we charter out and into the bearing sea somewhere. Stan, how long ahead of time do you get your assignments? Can you make any plans? Sometimes we get five minutes notice and sometimes a month's notice. This

particular assignment I knew about before I went on vacation a couple weeks ago. Of course it's possible to eat and lunch and before the dessert comes in you're gone. Certainly. What kind of story do you get the biggest kick out of? Oh, I think I like people. Anything. People laughing, crying, fighting, playing. The solar people. And they're doing things that people do. Well, people are interested in people, you know. That's right. How about your equipment here? You've got it all laid out here. What kind of cameras do you use? Well, I usually use 35 millimeter for about 90 % of my work. I use the Japanese Nikon with a number of lenses. Occasionally a roll of flex. And on some special assignments a sequence camera. Do you find that the big item in what we might call big time photography is the equipment or the ideas? Which would you say is the more important? Well, I guess like a writer you probably need a good typewriter and a sharp pencil. But that's as far as it goes. It's,

I think, firmly believe that I could do a fairly good job with one camera although I usually carry six on an assignment. It is, you do need the equipment. But other than that, there's a lot more behind it. Well, good luck in the Arctic. I hope you come back, unfrost bitten. Oh, thank you very much. Okay, Stan, congratulations. Thank you. Here's Roy Rowan, Midwest Bureau Chief for Time in Life in his office here in a Chicago skyscraper. Overlooking much of the city and I see that from the vantage point of a map up here you overlook much of the Midwest. Yes, we do, we do very little in Chicago itself. Of course we try to do as much as we can here. But our area really goes east to about Pittsburgh and west out to the Rockies. And well, from here I've been up within 200 miles of the North Pole and we have a photographer who's been down in the South Pole. As a matter of fact, we just talked on one. About how many people do you have here on

your staff, Roy? Well, I think the office, including everybody, is 24. We have four staff photographers. We have six life reporters, seven time reporters, a photo lab man and some gals that do general office work too, teletype operators and so forth. Well, how do you integrate these two operations, Roy? You have important material coming from your bureau and you send it back to New York and what do they do? Fly the copy out for printing or something? No, this is done a little differently. I think we have a unique system. First, we suggest all the stories that we think should be covered in the area. We've got to go ahead on those that the editors are interested in and we go out and cover the stories. Most cases will air express the film in New York and send the copy in by teletype. New York will

make the layouts. We'll use what portions of the text material that they want and then facsimile these layouts back to Donnelly's. But one interesting thing is that the type in these stories is actually set in New York by telepriners. It's just like they were operating a line of type machine by long distance. When you're certainly shorting the miles here with your communication system. Oh, we can, in a pinch now, on stories like the Kentucky Derby last Saturday, we can set up mobile transmission units for pictures. And we can actually take the pictures at 4 .30 in the afternoon, transmit them over a facsimile machine at about six o 'clock and have the whole story ready for Donnelly's by about eight or nine o 'clock Chicago time. And we fly then, fly the original prints by Charter playing up from Louisville. Boy, that one day is pretty harrowing. Oh, yes. Roy, what are you working on now here? While

we're doing a Japanese day out at a Dayton High School, we're doing the dogs that Eisenhower were supposed to get these, I think, their Alsaceans that are down in Kansas. But the biggest story we're working on this week is the Scandinavian Riley that is coming to Minnesota tomorrow. Who's Jane Estee? Well, Jane Estee's is a reporter up there. She's up there now, finding out exactly what they're going to do. She should be calling in pretty soon to tell Paul Welch what we can expect. Now, the Washington Bureau has been covering these people for the last couple of days while they go make the rounds of the embassies there. Fine, well, let's check out Jane and Paul. I think that'd be fine. Hello. Hi. Hi, Jane Estee. Oh, fine. I'm so worried. I think the calves are certainly up a little bit. You think the what? The calves are certainly up a little bit. Fine, I'm getting mad at anything.

Yeah, I am. I'm about 10 pounds especially in here. I have found some for you. Have you sifted through it? Yeah, we got some work from New York. Guys, will you talk to you? Oh, yeah. Not yet, huh? No. Well, they sent out a, uh, a message this morning asking us to please try awfully hard for this picture of them. They're not going to be there. Well, they're going to be there on Saturday. Oh, no, no. They're not coming in for the parade on Saturday. Oh. Well, apparently someone's trying to set the thing up there. Wow. Trying to arrange it, that is. You know what I mean? Apparently the, uh, the Centennial Commission people, uh, are trying to set the thing up. Well, possibly, but, uh, they held out very little hulk today. I might talk to them at some length about it. Really? They did. They gave us pretty much a lot of cards. Well, look, uh, I guess, I guess you better give, uh, Hewark Hall as soon as you have sifted through those ten pounds of paper. Yeah. And, uh, uh, I think we don't have to

worry about the facts in my business yet until, you know, we can wait another day before we start worrying about that. And we'll see how it goes. Well, I don't think it will be too hard to set up here. The, the cell is a distributor or a great, you know, a co -author. Yeah. And, uh, so, I don't see how we can avoid that. There's, uh, Frank, uh, a showing up yet. Not yet. Not yet. When do you expect them in? Uh, well, sometime after dinner, I think. Uh -huh. When you're starting shooting tomorrow morning? Yes, when. When they arrive. Yeah. Fine. Well, uh, I'll call you and give him a little run down on this. Good day. So to get square. Yeah, I help with, uh, help put the heat on you for the beauties. Well, I hope the committee can come through with it. Yeah, well, this wire says that they're working like, like, uh, like the decades on the thing. So, yeah, so, uh, maybe they will, because I think it could be a big help. Okay. And, uh, New York is, uh, very much in love with her. All right, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll get a call tomorrow morning, too. Yeah. Okay, fine.

Okay. Okay, Jane. All right. Take it easy. Bye. I suppose the happiest thing, Roy, for a life or time corresponded is to do a cover story. These are kind of small epics in journalism. Each one in itself. Well, we get, uh, we do get involved in quite a few cover stories, uh, uh, both on, uh, both for time and life. Uh, time cover stories. Uh, we're more likely to participate in rather than do completely, though, we're, uh, the time guys are working on one cover right now. And I would say during the course of the year that we all probably participate in 10 or 12 time covers. We, in life, we do, uh, maybe four or five covers a year out of here. That's all. Remember when Bertie Tabits picture was on the cover of time and he said that jinxed the ball club? Well, you know, there's, uh, there's a, there's a star. I mean, a lot of people feel that, uh, time covers are jinxed. We just ran a cover, I guess, in the last six weeks, on Willie Hardtack and he broke his leg and couldn't ride in the derby. You had Harry Truman and he,

well, Adelaide Stevenson and he lost. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, good things happen to cover people, too. Well, now, you've got, uh, a lot of professional newsmen around here. Um, what do you think about the charge that, uh, time and life story the news? They make beautiful yarns and, and they, uh, uh, present the news in plots and stories and, uh, may not be as objective as some people would like. Well, I think I, I mean, we certainly are always trying to be objective. Uh, you have to, on any story for, you have to strike some sort of an attitude. When you're doing a story, you have to make up your mind how you're going to do it. And I think every journalist in the world has to do that. I don't think that we're any more gilly of this than anybody else. Uh, maybe we're a little fair game because we're so big. Whatever the story in it, the story about it is plain enough.

Time and life have carried the printed word to more Americans than any other news publication in our history. They have done so through the structure of a great organization. But mostly they have done so by finding and documenting the greatest drama of all. The world's news. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.